Top Focus Before 9/11 Wasn't on Terrorism
By Robin Wright / WaPo
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On Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address "the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday" — but the focus was largely on missile defense, not...

Mickey Kaus: Here's what Rice actually was going to say, according to WaPo: "We need to worry about the suitcase bomb, the car bomb and the vial of sarin...
Jon Henke: Silly Season — One more thought about the WaPo story causing so much disturbance in the force today. McQ has already pointed out that "at that...
Angry Bear: The Headline Says it All — Page 1, Washington Post. Top Focus Before 9/11 Wasn't on Terrorism: Rice Speech Cited Missile Defense. "On Sept. 11,...

Digby: There He Goes Again — In today's Washington Post article on Condi's undelivered speech, called "Top Focus Before 9/11 Wasn't on Terrorism Rice...
McQ: Might be nice if they read the report — Jon points to the nonsense going on in the left side of the blogosphere about the WaPo story today.
David Allan Pell: It covered items such as missile defense, but there wasn't much of a focus on terrorism and Islamic radicals. Interesting? To be sure.

Kerry Slips Out of Picture
By Adam Nagourney / NYT
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WASHINGTON, March 31 — At the very moment that President Bush has begun his general election campaign, Senator John Kerry has largely slipped from sight. And Mr. Bush has made the most of Mr. Kerry's absence.

Mickey Kaus: ... Kerry Fever, Catch It! Do you remember the Kerry "wave of excitement"? Those were the days! [More precise dates for "wave" pls—ed Hard to...
David Allan Pell: Update: It's Only Friggin' April, Fools — From the NY Times: "Mr. Kerry's low profile occurs at what would seem to be a particularly opportune...

S.Q.S.: We read with interest today's New York Times report about a campaign appearance by Sen. John Kerry. What caught our eye was this brief anecdote:...
Nick @Agonist: via NYT: Mr. Kerry's low profile occurs at what would seem to be a particularly opportune time for the senator. Mr. Bush has been struggling with...

Angry Bear: The Center for American Progress has a more complete, though I'm sure not comprehensive, list. AB
Ezra Klein: Flippity-Floppiter — Whoa, what a waffler.

Jesse Taylor: Everything Right Is Wrong Again — When I say flip, you say flop! Flip! FLOP! Some of these, I'm glad Bush flip-flopped on - but damn, he's ended...
Nick Confessore: BUSH'S FLIP-FLOPS: EVEN MORE! The busy little bees at the Center for American Progress have posted a master list of President Bush's flip-flops.

Clarke's Charges Gain Acceptance
By Ronald Brownstein / LAT
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WASHINGTON — Most Americans accept Richard Clarke's key criticisms of President Bush's anti-terrorism record, but a majority also thinks that politics influenced the timing of the charges by the former White House aide, a Los Angeles Times poll has found.

David Allan Pell: But they think the timing of his comments is politically motivated (which would seem more likely if the book came out in October).
Greyhawk: Clarke's Charges Gain Acceptance (Los Angeles Times)...Ronald Brownstein Most Americans accept Richard Clarke's key criticisms of President...
Howard Kurtz: Another poll, this one in the Los Angeles Times, and Clarke vs. Bush seems to be a wash: "Most Americans accept Richard Clarke's key criticisms...

McQ: Howard Kurtz of the WaPo said it for me: "A good radio show has strong pacing and a deft mixture of ideology, confrontation and humor.
Tim Graham: Howard Kurtz reports from the battle front: "the signal was elusive in Los Angeles, its San Francisco station didn't materialize, and its...
Hesiod: BUT...it's very early. Atrios sounds good, though. P.S. HEY GUYS! I'M AVAILABLE TOO!!! UPDATE: Howard Kurtz reviews the first day of Air America.

Roger L. Simon: Radio Days — I was one of those people described in this Washington Post article who couldn't find the new Al Franken show, which purports to do...
Jesse Taylor: Instant Response, Instant Stupidity — Tim Graham: "The Washington Post also signals its liberal bias by putting Al Franken on the front page...

What's That Sound?
By Thomas L. Friedman / NYT
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I hadn't been to Mexico since 1996, so it definitely caught my ear when I started to hear two non-Spanish words on this trip that I'd never heard here before: "China" and "India." Mexicans are increasingly aware that these two countries are running off with jobs and markets...

Daniel Davies: In the course of an insanely annoying piece of Globollocks (summary: Mexico went through hell to get ready for NAFTA and ended up hardly...
Jesse Taylor: http://www.Capitalism.org/~Mex ico — As Crooked Timber points out, Tom Friedman not only pulls a Brit Hume and compares proportions of...

James Joyner: Stereo Sucking Sounds — Thomas Friedman points out that globalization runs downhill: "I hadn’t been to Mexico since 1996, so it...

Hugh Hewitt: Doesn't John Kerry remind you of...? My answer is at WeeklyStandard.com. The folks at FreeRepublic.com have a fine thread up on the subject, with...
Betsy Newmark: Which MASH character does Kerry remind you of?

Edward Driscoll: THE FRANK BURNS/JOHN KERRY CONNECTION, as discovered by Hugh Hewitt. I can certainly see it—Kerry's "I don't fall down, the son of a b*itch...

Richard Clarke on 'Hardball'
MSNBC
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MR. MATTHEWS: Good evening. I'm Chris Matthews. I'm in NBC News headquarters in New York and I'm joined right now by the former senior counterterrorism adviser in the Bush White House, Richard Clarke. He's the author of "Against All Enemies." Thank you for joining us.

John Cole: Matthews At His Worst — I was watching Softball with Chris Matthews last night, and at one point I was so nauseated by his behavior while...
Dave Huber: At any rate, last evening current guest ad nauseum Richard Clarke was with Chris Matthews. Amazingly, Matthews, despite his "Hardball"...

David Allan Pell: Why was the system reliant on one person?" Here's a transcript of the interview.

Allah: There are only two things the mujahedeen have in common with T.S. Eliot, and one of those things is the belief that April is, indeed, the...

Against Selected Enemies
By Richard Miniter / Opinion Journal
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A year ago, I thought Richard A. Clarke, President Clinton's counterterror czar, was a hero. He and his small band of officials fought a long battle to focus the bureaucracy on stopping Osama bin Laden long before 9/11. For my own book, I interviewed Mr. Clarke extensively...

Pejman Yousefzadeh: Now comes Richard Miniter, who says that the information in Clarke's book differs rather dramatically from Miniter's book, Losing Bin Laden. Why...
Hindrocket: Against One Enemy—the President — Richard Miniter, author of Losing bin Laden, blasts Richard Clarke's book Against All Enemies, as a partisan...

Glenn Reynolds: RICHARD MINITER, AUTHOR OF LOSING BIN LADEN, has thoughts on the Clarke affair: "Curiously, about the Clinton years, where Mr. Clarke's...
Betsy Newmark: Richard Miniter interviewed Clarke extensively for Miniter's book Losing Bin Laden. Miniter says that Clarke then was scathing about Clinton's...

Blog-Bleary? Try (What Else?) a Blog
By David F. Gallagher / NYT
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BY pointing readers to the Web's newest and best bits, Web logs offer a way to cut through online clutter. But now that there are millions of blogs, what was once a solution to the information glut has started to become part of the problem. So perhaps inevitably, sites and...

Nick Gillespie: As this NY Times account explains, "the site automatically compiles digests of blogs covering subject areas like politics and baseball."
Jeff Jarvis: Well, start at Kinja, which brings together blogs of note and makes them easy to follow. Here's the NY Times story about it. Here's Denton's...

Bill Hobbs: A Blog of Blogs — The New York Times reports on the launch of Kinja, Nick Denton's new blog-of-blogs. "By pointing readers to the Web's newest...

David Allan Pell: Help (Really, Really) Wanted: Ambassadorship to Iraq position soon to be opening. Any takers? (Could it be Wolfowitz)?
Greyhawk: Administration May Face Tough Sell On Its Next Ambassadorship To Iraq (Los Angeles Times)...Paul Richter and Edmund Sanders ...A U.S. official in...

Kevin Drum: The LA Times says "maybe," and also discusses a few other possible candidates.

SLZoll: Larry Elder Larry, whose gimmick is being a conservative black man, brings us the news that John Kerry is unlikable, as demonstrated by an...
Steve Dillard: Senator Kerry — the likability gap: Spot on. Here's a taste: "The people who know Kerry best consider Kerry aloof, imperious and condescending.

Allah: Others are more forgiving: [quote] Arab governments across the Middle East are bending or breaking their own censorship rules for "The Passion of the...[end quote]

4 From U.S. Killed in Ambush in Iraq; Mob Drags Bodies
By Jeffrey Gettleman / NYT
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FALLUJA, Iraq, March 31 — Four Americans working for a security company were ambushed and killed Wednesday, and an enraged mob then jubilantly dragged the burned bodies through the streets of downtown Falluja, hanging at least two corpses from a bridge over the Euphrates...

Greyhawk: 4 From U.S. Killed In Ambush In Iraq; Mob Drags Bodies (New York Times)...Jeffrey Gettleman ...American military officials said the violence in...
Nathan Newman: Four Mercenaries Killed in Iraq — That should be the headline from yesterday's attack in Iraq. Talking about "civilians" killed, when the people...
Charles Johnson: UPDATE: From the New York Times report on this abomination: 4 From U.S. Killed in Brutal Assault by a Mob of Iraqis. "A few hours later the men...

Rich Lowry: FALLUJAH — A few observations, based on today's report in the New York Times. 1) It often seems when there is horrific mob violence, boys are in...
Bo Cowgill: CITIZENS NOT BAATHISTS: More evidence that the Fallujah attackers and celebrators were not just shadowy Baathist agents — they were ordinary...

Glenn Reynolds: ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's a different photo of Kerry with the daisy. Note the Secret Service agent, who appears to be looking at it with a "WTF?"...

Bill Hobbs: Here's another photo of Kerry with flower decoration, from the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper in Ketchum, Idaho. There's another here of Kerry...

Dream-Filled Missile Silos
NYT
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The Pentagon is foolishly racing to deliver on President Bush's grandiose 2000 campaign promise to have a still unproven, money-munching missile defense system deployed in time for the November election. It's supposed to provide protection against incoming ballistic...

Digby: What's more, they may not even believe it exists today. They still care more about missile defense and American global military dominance.
Edward _: According to today's New York Times editorial, the Bush Administration is still foolishly focussed on missile defense. I don't say "foolishly"...

Greyhawk: Dream-Filled Missile Silos (New York Times)...Editorial The Pentagon is foolishly racing to deliver on President Bush's grandiose 2000 campaign...

The Big Trunk: Iraq's hidden WMD — Reader Malcolm Smordin has sent us the link to this story from tomorrow's The Age of Australia: "Secret bunkers held...

McQ: According to the Australian newspaper, "The Age", an Iraqi exile who worked at the top of Iraq's scientific establishment claims WMDs were...

U.S. Optimism Is Tested Again After Ambush Kills 4 in Iraq
By John F. Burns / NYT
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BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 31 — Hours after the deaths of the four American civilians who were dragged from their vehicle and mutilated in Falluja on Wednesday, an American general went before reporters in Baghdad with the air of measured assurance that has characterized every...

Greyhawk: U.S. Optimism Is Tested Again After Ambush Kills 4 In Iraq (New York Times)...John F. Burns Hours after the deaths of the four American civilians...
Tacitus: Please post all comments there. This NYT analysis piece is rather interesting, although not for the reasons its author thinks.
Andrew Sullivan: But it's equally hard not to be worried by John Burns' analysis in today's NYT: "On Tuesday, before the Falluja attacks, General Kimmitt, the...

Jesse Taylor: A Million Mogadishus — After a horrific capstone to the second deadliest month since the official end of the war (of course, we can expect the...
Tbogg: But it's equally hard not to be worried by John Burns' analysis in today's NYT: On Tuesday, before the Falluja attacks, General Kimmitt, the...

I.R.S. Request for More Terrorism Investigators Is Denied
By David Cay Johnston / NYT
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WASHINGTON, March 30 - The Bush administration has scuttled a plan to increase by 50 percent the number of criminal financial investigators working to disrupt the finances of Al Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist organizations to save $12 million, a Congressional hearing was...

Jeanne D'Arc: Terrorists get a break from the IRS — Via Bad Attitudes — I.R.S. Request for More Terrorism Investigators Is Denied: The Bush administration...

Jesse Taylor: Lilliputians would marvel at the near-atomic size of Bush's bold progress on terrorism. "The Bush administration has scuttled a plan to increase...

9/11 Widows Skillfully Applied the Power of a Question: Why?
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg / NYT
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WASHINGTON, March 31 — Kristen Breitweiser was at home in Middletown, N.J., cleaning out closets. Patty Casazza of Colts Neck was dashing to the dry cleaners. Lorie Van Auken of East Brunswick was headed out to do grocery shopping. Her neighbor Mindy Kleinberg had just...

David Allan Pell: So why do we have this commission asking why? A key factor is a group of Sept 11 widows who are known in Washington as the Jersey Girls.

Mike Rappaport: The Politics of Victimhood — The New York Times has a puff piece on four 9/11 widows who have lobbied for the establishment and expansion of the...

Roger L. Simon: UPDATE: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing from Brussels, has more on the extent of the cover-up: The headline findings contradict the body of the...

Pejman Yousefzadeh: Consider how the reporting of anti-Semitic acts in Europe is being skewed: "Jewish leaders have accused the European Union of covering up the...

What has gone right in Iraq
By Jeff Jacoby / Boston Globe
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WITH ALL the news coming out of the Middle East, here is a detail you might have missed: A few weeks ago, the United Nations shut down the Ashrafi refugee camp in southwestern Iran. For years Ashrafi had been the largest facility in the world housing displaced Iraqis, tens...

Charles Johnson: What Has Gone Right in Iraq — Jeff Jacoby reminds us: What has gone right in Iraq. (Hat tip: Carl in Jerusalem.) "WITH ALL the news coming out...

Josh Marshall: Henry Waxman wrote a letter to White House Counsel Al Gonzales asking whether he had placed calls to "selected" members of the 9/11 Commission...
Tbogg: You've got to fight...for your right...to ex parte — Maybe he just wanted to invite him to go duck hunting: President Bush's top lawyer placed a...

Jeanne D'Arc: I am less impressed when the pieces of wood are the Republican members of the September 11 commission.

Nick @Agonist: Political titles play an unusual role in this campaign — Books, the oldest of the "old media," are pushing serious issues into the presidential...

Taegan Goddard: Plan of Attack — Another book investigating the Bush administration's war planning efforts will be out soon, USA Today reports.

Bush's Surrender
By David S. Broder / WaPo
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When President Bush appeared momentarily on Tuesday afternoon in the White House briefing room, he came to announce a surrender. After weeks of resistance, he had capitulated to the growing political pressure for national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to give the...

Atrios: Losing Broder — Could it be? When the effort to shoot the messenger failed to halt the political erosion, Bush did what he never should have...

Veto Threatened on Highway Bill
By Carl Hulse / NYT
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WASHINGTON, March 31 — Taking a cue from Ronald Reagan, President Bush is threatening to cast his first veto on a popular highway bill filled with pet projects of Congress members eager before the election to win highway money for constituents stuck in traffic back home.

Betsy Newmark: Bush is threatening to veto the bloated Highway Bill. Sounds good to me.

Nathan Newman: But now he's threatening to veto one of the few bills being voted on that is guaranteed to increase employment, namely the highway bill.

Progress Is Ongoing in Iraq, White House Says
WaPo
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After yesterday's brutal attacks on American civilians in Iraq, President Bush and his aides insisted progress continues there and vowed not to back away, as the United States did after grisly images of U.S. soldiers emerged from Somalia in 1993.

Jeanne D'Arc: I glanced at this headline from the Washington Post — Progress Is Ongoing in Iraq, White House Says Civilian Deaths Condemned as Administration...

Pentagon Announces Plans to Sell Radars to Taiwan
By Bradley Graham / WaPo
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The Pentagon announced plans yesterday to sell Taiwan two long-range early-warning radars and associated equipment totaling nearly $1.8 billion in cost as part of an effort to bolster the island's defenses in the face of a Chinese missile buildup.

Powell targets Europe vision
By Nicholas Kralev / Washington Times
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BERLIN — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday became the first senior U.S. official to concede publicly that the United States and Europe have been pursuing different world visions for more than two years and said it was time those paths converged.

Patrick Belton: And Secretary Powell, unusually for a U.S. official, said yesterday that the U.S. and Europe had been pursuing different world visions for the...

Allah: In the UK, the Muslim Council of Britain has denounced extremist imams and called on Muslims to fight terrorism. And they're not the only ones.
Tim Blair: This guy seems to support the "radical Islamic fundamentalists" option: "Britain's most prominent Muslim leader last night demanded a crackdown...

How to become a good writer
By Marvin Olasky / Townhall.com
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Evocative images, provocative thoughts, tension without pretension — that's what makes for good writing. I've seen so much poor writing lately that, as a public service, I'll offer some advice from great authors who also became fed up with pretentious prose.

SLZoll: Marvin Olasky Marve, editor of World Magazine and cofounder of the World Institute of Journalism ("injecting an evangelical bias into the news in...

Most Say They Are Less Safe Since 9/11
By Christopher Lee / WaPo
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Fewer than half of all Americans think the country is safer now than it was on Sept. 11, 2001, and more than three-quarters expect the United States to be the target of a major terrorist attack at home or abroad in the next few months, according to a new poll.

Greyhawk: Most Say They Are Less Safe Since 9/11 (Washington Post)...Christopher Lee Fewer than half of all Americans think the country is safer now than...
Oliver Willis: Most Americans say "no".

Sean-Paul Kelley: Now we gotta fix it." So for the thousandth time I'll ask: "What are the Democrats going to do to fix it?" Stop talking about Medicare.

The Long Haul
By T. X. Hammes / WaPo
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Over the past nine months, the conflict in Iraq has emerged as an insurgency. While that fact is widely recognized, our policies have not adjusted to reflect the much longer timelines inherent to insurgency. Recent history shows insurgencies span decades. The Chinese...

Greyhawk: 42. The Long Haul (Washington Post)...T. X. Hammes Over the past nine months, the conflict in Iraq has emerged as an insurgency.

David Adesnik: WHERE NEXT IN IRAQ? The WaPo has a pair of thoughtful op-eds, one by Jim Hoagland, the other by an infantry officer just back from Iraq.

Keep freedom of press in Iraq
By Hassan Fattah / USA Today
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Closing a newspaper often hurts more than it helps. The paper could have been forgotten as an embarrassment. Its coverage may have been dismissed as yet another example of bad journalism.

Greyhawk: 41. Keep Freedom Of Press In Iraq (USA Today)...Hassan Fattah Closing a newspaper often hurts more than it helps. The paper could have been...

Juan Cole: Even secular journalists protested the move. Mohamed Bazzi argued that the closure of his newspaper would give Muqtada new prominence and...

Jacob Levy: Radley's other story: A Virginia woman is being prosecuted for the felony of "crimes against nature" for having received oral sex.
Radley Balko: 4) In Virginia, a woman could get up to five years in prison for receiving oral sex, which the state has deemd "a crime against nature."

Matt Yglesias: Sodomy — Does anyone — anyone at all — care to defend this action by the government of Virginia?

Found notes may show Bush plan on Clarke
By Pamela Hess / UPI
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WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) — The White House was worried about the damaging testimony of a former counter-terrorism chief to a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks last week but was trying to let the issue die on its own, according to Pentagon briefing notes...

Howard Kurtz: Pam Hess of UPI uncovers what's being dubbed the Starbucks Papers: "The White House was worried about the damaging testimony of a former...
Betsy Newmark: It's not encouraging to hear that an aide to Rumsfeld is leaving notes for how to deal with Clarke in a Starbucks. It's a good thing that they...

The Big Trunk: The UPI story is "Found notes may show Bush plan on Clarke." The notes expose a shocking sanity rampant among the Bush administration: [quote] "Stay...[end quote]

Ted Barlow: It’s about the fascist political philosopher Carl Schmitt. Just a sample: Schmitt argued that liberals, properly speaking, can never be...
Jacob Levy: 1) The link I gave was subscription-only, but the article's been posted on the free portion of the Chronicle's site. 2) Russell Arben Fox offers...

Matt Yglesias: Carl Schmitt — Jeralyn Merrit requests that I weigh in on Alan Wolfe's article asserting that Carl Schmitt is the key to conservative political...
Pejman Yousefzadeh: A NON-GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY POLITICS — Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, political scientist Alan Wolfe tells us about Carl Schmitt.

Iraqis Drag 4 U.S. Bodies Through Streets
By Sameer N. Yacoub / AP
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FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - In a scene reminiscent of Somalia, frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies of four American contractors through the streets of a town west of Baghdad on Wednesday and strung two of them up from a bridge after rebels ambushed their SUVs.

Owen Courreges: The horrible symmetry: God help me, because I can't get these images out of my mind: How can humanity be this evil?

Bo Cowgill: DEATHS IN IRAQ: I am simply repulsed by the treadment of dead soldiers' bodies in Iraq. My response to the people who did this is simply: You...

David Neiwert: But that military orientation in the "war on terror" obviously dominated the Bush strategy both before and after 9/11, and led ultimately to the...
Von @ObsidianWings: Broken Record Watch, Part II — More: "Suspected insurgents killed four American civilian contractors in a grenade attack Wednesday in central...

Phil Carter: Every major news outlet — NYT, WSJ, CNN, WP, LAT — is running this as their top story right now, and they all have the graphic images displayed...

Glenn Reynolds: The UN seems to have contributed to genocide in Rwanda — while various other people obstructed action or did nothing. Noam Chomsky's support for...

Rich Lowry: CLINTON KNEW... about the Rwandan genocide, at least according to this story in the Guardian: Papers prove US knew of genocide in Rwanda By...

50 MOST LOATHSOME NEW YORKERS
New York Press
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"How come you guys are such haters?" someone asked us recently. Shocked and insulted, we shook our heads. Our biggest issue thus far—last September's Best of Manhattan issue—was a compendium of positivity. On any given week we're founts of compassion: lovers, not haters;...

Libertarian: A GREAT LIST OF THE "50 MOST LOATHSOME NEW YORKERS" from the New York Press. Hilarious insights include: " ...metrosexuality, in which men...

Nick Gillespie: Here's a rundown of some of the media types who got a Bronx cheer: "50 MOST LOATHSOME NEW YORKERS [snips throughout] 39 Eric Alterman Pundit...

Brooks Shield
By Noam Scheiber / TNR
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David Brooks probably doesn't need me defending him. And, as I occasionally find his pieces sloppy and his analysis a little seat-of-the-pants, there are probably less conflicted defenders than me. But, having said that, I can't say I find him to be a journalistic villain...

Nick Confessore: My friend Noam Scheiber takes to the hustings to defend David Brooks against the wicked pen of Sasha Issenberg and, it seems, those of us who...

Billmon: This time, it's a much larger, if less obviously embarrassing, section of today's story on the Fallujah massacre that's vanished into the ether.
Phil Carter: Atrocities in Fallujah — Iraqi insurgents kill American contractors, then defile and display their bodies Iraqi insurgents escalated the war of...

Armed Liberal: Falluja — The brutal attacks on American contractors (albeit paramilitary contractors) is all over the news. Go read Phil Carter's take on it.
Von @ObsidianWings: Today's bombing — though hardly encouraging — is not the reason for my concern. Rather, this announcement (which appears to have been lost...

Despite Deep Woes, Democracy Instills Hope
By Richard Morin / WaPo
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SOWETO, South Africa — Ten years after the end of apartheid and white rule, South Africans recite a list of woes that endanger democracy in the beloved country: crime, AIDS, a shortage of jobs and public services, a surplus of racism and corruption.

Robert Garcia Tagorda: Good News from South Africa — Though crime, AIDS, unemployment, and other problems continue to plague their country, South Africans remain...

Jacob Levy: Both of the following via Radley Balko. Someone has finally slipped down a slope that I've been mentioning (awkwardly) for a few years.

Radley Balko: 3) Also from Georgia, lawmakers have decided you aren't allowed to pierce your genitals. 4) In Virginia, a woman could get up to five years in...

Gaseous Emissions
By Nick Schulz / NRO
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Sen. John Kerry has pounced on another trendy campaign theme. First he was blasting what he called "Benedict Arnold CEOs" outsourcing American jobs. Kerry came under pressure on that point when it was revealed that the source of his family's fortune, the Heinz ketchup...

Glenn Reynolds: Now John Kerry's singing the same tune, and Nick Schulz doesn't think it'll fly this time, either. There's more on gas prices from energy analyst...

OPEC Ratifies Pledge to Cut Production Targets
By Simon Romero / NYT
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VIENNA, March 30 — OPEC said today that it would press forward with a previously announced plan to cut production by 1 million barrels a day in an aggressive display of its strategy to maintain oil prices at their highest level in more than a decade.

Edward _: Gas prices in some stations in New York City are over $2.00/gallon. OPEC announces it's cutting production targets. But don't worry, Bush knows...

Jane Galt: Amidst all this talk of OPECcutting production, a tiny beacon of sunshine on the energy horizon: companies are trying to win approval for a new...

Radley Balko: 8) Following the lead of European enviro-wackos, Angola becomes the second African country that would rather allow its people to starve than to...

Ronald Bailey: Nevertheless, more Africans are at risk of starvation because of anti-biotech fears fanned by ideological environmentalists and European Union...

Reason to Run? Nader Argues He Has Plenty
By Todd S. Purdum / NYT
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WASHINGTON, March 30 — Ralph Nader knows all the arguments against him. He can recite, word for importuning word, the letters from old friends urging him not to run for president — "all individually written, all stunningly similar" — and he does so with the theatrical...

Bryan Keefer: Writing yesterday, Todd Purdum let Nader speak for himself, but also slipped in several digs at the candidate via quotes from former New York...
James Martin Capozzola: This morning I unsuccessfully Google'd around for a while looking for answers to these questions, questions I'm pretty sure already have been...

David Allan Pell: Nader sees this reaction to his candidacy as a virus: "And the more I got of these, the more I realized that we are confronting a virus, a...

Condi's Moment
By Mark Goldblatt / NRO
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The archetypal liberal is the guy who, every morning, drops a dollar in the lap of the homeless man camped out in front of his apartment building and who, every evening, blames conservatives for the fact that there's a homeless man camped out in front of his apartment...

Howard Kurtz: On National Review, Mark Goldblatt predicts a boffo Condi performance: "Now the liberals will get their wish: Dr. Rice will tell her side of the...
Edward Driscoll: CONDI'S MOMENT: Mark Goldblatt writes that liberals feel "They stuck it to Bush" by getting National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify...
Will Collier: Briar Patch — Regarding Condi Rice's upcoming public testimony, I was wondering how long it would take for somebody to figure this out.

Nathan Hallford: Rice's Time To Shine: Mark Goldblatt has an essay on NRO today which expresses my sentiments, regarding Condoleezza Rice's appearance before the...
Betsy Newmark: Mark Goldblatt says that the Democrats will wish they had never pushed for Condoleezza Rice to testify. "Dr. Rice will tell her side of the...

David Adesnik: HORROR AND SILENCE: The savage brutality of yesterday's murders in Fallujah has shocked the blogosphere into silence. How often does an event of...
Kevin Drum: An enraged mob killed four American civilians in the most barbaric way imaginable: "The attack began when insurgents fired assault rifles at two...

Robert Garcia Tagorda: The Horror of Fallujah — It's hard to get over the absolutely reprehensible brutalization of the civilian contractors, whose "burned bodies were...
Paradox: Charred Bodies Being Abused — Five U.S. soldiers were killed today when a roadside bomb exploded under their vehicle. Fifty US soldiers have...

Oliver Willis: National Insecurity — Someone in Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon left their talking points at Starbucks
Kevin T. Keith: A soon-to-be-ex-Department of Defense staffer named "Eric" left a stack of handwritten notes - for briefing Donald Rumsfeld on how to handle the...

The Big Trunk: The notes were found by a Starbucks customer who gave them to the liberal advocacy group the Center for American Progress, which has published...
Matt Yglesias: Pentagon's Papers — The boys at CAP found some Rumsfeld briefing notes that they're calling "the Pentagon's papers" in an obvious reference to...

His Own Worst Critic
By George F. Will / WaPo
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"So," Lincoln supposedly said to the White House visitor, "you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war." Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," published in 1852, quickly sold 300,000 copies — equivalent to 3 million today — and remains the...

Hugh Hewitt: Finally George Will does what George Will does best, a column-length takedown of Richard Clarke. Sample: "By the eighth day Clarke was telling...
Jesse Taylor: Meretricious Protrusiveness...Axiomatically — I have a little ritual I go through with George Will articles. The first thing I do is go through...
James Joyner: Clarke Fallout — George Will is particularly withering in his assessment of the Richard Clarke brouhaha: "Too much of the controversy about...

Libertarian: "WE MUST HAVE WAFFLES FORTHWITH!" A great post poking fun at George Will's attempt to attack Richard Clarke.
Mike Rappaport: Will on Clarke — George Will chimes in with his criticisms of Clarke. Here is an excerpt: Too much of the controversy about Clarke's book — and...
Cori Dauber: THE BLAME GAME — George Will, as usual, stuffs many different ideas and arguments into today's piece, and you may agree or disagree with some or...

Emperor Darth Misha I: OK, this "Hearts and Minds" s**t Has Gone on for Long Enough... Time to go back to basics with these swine (link via LGF) "Wed Mar 31, 3:40 PM...
Steve Dillard: Iraqis Drag Bodies Through Streets After Attack: No good deed . . .

Billmon: Reuters Iraqis Drag Bodies Through Streets After Attack March 31, 2004 "In the months since the Rangers came, they had been swooping over the...
Charles Johnson: Religion of Savagery — Iraqis Drag Bodies Through Streets After Attack. "Television pictures showed one incinerated body being kicked and...

When Goals Meet Reality: Bush's Reversal on 9/11 Testimony
By David E. Sanger / NYT
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WASHINGTON, March 30 — When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took office three years ago, they made no secret of their intention to restore presidential powers and prerogatives that they believed had withered under the onslaught of Washington's cycle of televised,...

Robert Garcia Tagorda: Consider this New York Times analysis: "When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took office three years ago, they made no secret of their intention...
David Allan Pell: Chances are we'll focus a lot less on those recommendations than on the inner political workings of a White House that reversed itself once again...

Liz Cox Barrett: Like The New York Times' David Sanger, the Associated Press yesterday characterized the Bush administration's decision to allow Condoleezza Rice...
Howard Kurtz: The New York Times: "When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took office three years ago, they made no secret of their intention to restore...

Glenn Reynolds: GENOCIDE IN THE SUDAN: Nick Kristof cares, but sadly not many other people seem to. For all the talk of "never again," genocide hasn't seemed to...
Cori Dauber: But I just can't let this go. But I don't have the strength to write another post. Check my earlier writings here and here.

Jeanne D'Arc: And it makes me a little uncomfortable with Kristof's latest piece on Sudan, which focuses on how good capitalism is for Africa.

Mathew Gross: As if on cue: "SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - An emotional former President George H.W. Bush on Tuesday defended his son's Iraq war and lashed...
Matt Yglesias: War for Oil? This really is quite funny. I know better than anyone that the second Gulf War was not, in fact, just a scheme hatched by the US oil...
Josh Marshall: Reading the lede of this piece from Reuters, I had to wonder whether I might actually be reading a spoof from The Onion ... "An emotional former...

David Allan Pell: Note to 41: It will sort of hurt the swaggering Texan tough guy thing that 43 has going if you cry.
Jon Henke: A friend sends a link to this Reuters story, which contains this interesting bit... "Iraq has been torn by violence and instability since a...

Al Gets Gore-TV
By Joe Hagan / New York Observer
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The Observer has learned that former Vice President Al Gore and business partner Joel Hyatt, an entrepreneur and Democratic fund-raiser, will close the deal to pay around $70 million to French-owned Vivendi Universal this week, making them the owners of the tiny...

John Cole: This Pisses Me Off — I find this really irritating: "The Observer has learned that former Vice President Al Gore and business partner Joel...

A look at Bush's reversals
AP
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(AP) — President Bush's decision Tuesday to allow his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify publicly before the commission investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks reversed earlier White House insistence that she would only appear privately.

Matthew Yglesias: Congratulations to the Associated Press for taking the trouble to document some of the president's flip-flops in the wake of the turnabout on...
Angry Bear: Via the AP — Headline: A look at Bush's reversals "(AP) — President Bush's decision Tuesday to allow his national security adviser,...

Kos: Now, the Bush flip flop list has entered the media consciousness — and every decision by Bush will now be analyzed in that context: "President...
Tbogg: Even CNN is jumping on President Which Way Are The Polls Blowing: Some previous Bush reversals in the face of criticism: He argued a federal...

Bush Scores Points By Defining Kerry
By Dan Balz / WaPo
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Since the end of the Democratic primaries, attacks on John F. Kerry by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, backed by millions of dollars in negative ads, have wiped out the narrow lead Kerry enjoyed at the beginning of the month and damaged his public image.

Hugh Hewitt: The Washington Post's Dan Balz reports on the Kerry crumple, but does so gently, focusing on the erosion in his support among "registered...
David Allan Pell: Negative Ads: This just in. They work.
David Adesnik: A front page article in this morning's WaPo asserts uncritically that "Attacks on John F. Kerry by President Bush and Vice President Cheney,...

Deacon: Definition by mirror — This Washington Post piece by Dan Balz is called "Bush Scores Points By Defining Kerry." It's a worthwhile discussion of...
Betsy Newmark: The Washington Post looks at the success that the Bush campaign has had in running ads that define Kerry before Kerry had an opportunity to...

Iraqis Drag Four Corpses Through Streets
By Sameer N. Yacoub / AP
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FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Jubilant residents dragged the charred corpses of four foreign contractors - including at least one American - through the streets Wednesday and hanged them from the bridge spanning the Euphrates River. Five American soldiers died in a roadside bombing...

Pejman Yousefzadeh: BLOODSHED IN FALLUJAH — It is, of course, disgusting and repulsive to read stories like this one. My thoughts and prayers are with the families...

Tacitus: Well. Just curious — can I call them barbarous savages now? Well, no matter. I absolutely do. This is who we're fighting, folks.